I visited Oakland’s Main Library mostly to see the diorama exhibit. But first, a bit about the library. This is Oakland’s third main library. The first one was where City Hall is now, from 1978 to 1902. The second one was a gorgeous Carnegie library and now houses the African American Museum and Library (which I visited for Expedition 21).
The current library was built in 1951. The style is vaguely deco, though. I like the warm walnut-toned walls and particularly the Streamline Moderne stair railings and terrazzo flooring. The ceilings are high but the space has an human, inviting feel to it.
The dioramas are hilarious! They’ll be on display till November 29 in the Oakland History Center. Built by local folks, they’re based on newspaper articles found in the History Center. Most people chose funny stories to illustrate from news stories from 1904 to 2014.
Subjects include a man arrested while watching for meteors, Houdini escaping while dangling from the Tribune Tower, and silverware found lying on the ground. There’s also one with a ghost baby at the Claremont Hotel. I was completely unaware that that Claremont is considered one of America’s most haunted hotels!
I was pleased to see the old school card catalog being used to index local newspaper articles. Near the entrance is another card catalog that now contains donated seeds.
The walls on the second floor have some great photos from Oakland’s history. I visited the map room to look at gigantic map books. There’s also a reading room filled with paper magazines and newspapers! Back issues of People Magazine, anyone?
